The Books That Changed Your Lives

I have so enjoyed reading every last post you’ve linked up this week. There’s so much inspiration there!

I was so curious to see what you’d link up, and you didn’t disappoint.

Many of you wrote about the first book that really grabbed you–the book that turned the switch and turned you into a reader. I love the way Heatherly describes what this looked like for her:

A Bath For A Beagle changed my life because it was the first book that I read cover to cover all by myself.
I was four years old.
And my life was changed forever.

With the confidence that I gained from this first monumental read-through I became “a reader.”

Without Beagle I would have no escape and little adventure.
I would not be an English teacher, a blogger, or have logged years as a bookseller and recommender. I would not have had the privilege of introducing hundreds of students and customers to their new favorite books.

And what would I do without my Nook? Or my library?

This little Beagle changed my life.

Many of you chose books that influenced your faith (and it was so interesting to see several titles pop up again and again). I admire (and relate to) the way Virginia–who chose The Hiding Place, Grace for the Good Girl, and the book of James as her books, identified the common threads running through her life-changing books:

When pondering this list of mine I realized the common threads through them.

• Faith in God.
• God can and does use 1 person who is willing and available to do amazing things.
• Eternity Matters.
• We’re part of a bigger story.
• These stories impact many people on a daily basis, including mine

And I loved the way Adriana at Classical Quest wrote of her longstanding hunger for a classical education, and the book The Well-Educated Mind: A Guide to the Classical Education You Never Had:

I have noticed that readers of the classics always seem to have in common a love for sumptuous food. Perhaps science will one day prove that a refined palette and a love for classic literature are genetically intertwined; regardless, the analogy of food is a good way to describe what reading a classic work does for me — It feeds me. Entering into “The Great Conversation”, I have found I’m not eating alone. I am joining into a shared experience with countless others through the ages.

And these are just a few of the 30ish posts linked to the carnival. Thank you so much for sharing your life-changing books here!

Head on over here to peruse the posts readers have shared! The link will be open until Friday night.